Ethical Principles and the Neurobiology of Behavior

FORMAT
One evening, two linked discussions
Part I: 90 minutes
After-Hour Session: 60 minutes

PART I (90 MINUTES)
PUBLIC POLICY THROUGH ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

This session examines poverty alleviation, homelessness, and healthcare by starting from ethical first principles rather than programs, budgets, or political ideology.

We focus on the moral assumptions that structure policy disagreement.

Key questions include:
What foundational moral values are at stake (welfare, rights, freedom, security)?
What conception of the person is being assumed?
How do different views of personhood shape what we think is owed to others?

Conceptions of personhood under discussion include:
Persons as right-bearers; Persons as morally inviolable beings
Persons as dependents with needs and vulnerabilities; Persons as socially embedded agents

The goal is conceptual clarity, not policy consensus.

AFTER-HOUR SESSION (60 MINUTES)
THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF COOPERATION AND COMPETITION

This shorter session takes a philosophically naturalist perspective on social behavior, asking how brain systems enable cooperation and competition as goal-directed action.

Topics include:
Prefrontal systems involved in social emotion regulation and risk-reward evaluation.
Reward-related systems associated with motivation, learning, and the “warm-glow” of altruism.

The guiding distinction:
Neurobiology explains how social behavior occurs.
Ethics evaluates which goals and norms ought to guide it.

TONE AND FORMAT
Structured, conversational, and pluralistic. Focused on clarification rather than persuasion

PROMPT
Which moral value do you treat as most basic?
What conception of personhood guides your views?

We look forward to a generous and lively exchange of ideas.
Tony & Aouie